What’s New in Yoga?

It’s understandable to think of Yoga as old and unchanging, but it’s actually far from static. Some types of Yoga that now seem well-established were once new fads themselves: Ashtanga Yoga only caught on in the ‘70s and Power Yoga became trendy in the ‘90s. More recently, more light-hearted practices that take Yoga off the mat are becoming increasingly popular.

Ariel ‘Anti Gravity’ Yoga

Last year I decided that Dave and I weren’tspending enough ‘quality’ time together, so I wanted to arrange a date ‘day’ rather than a date night which inevitably ends up with me just cooking something nice at home (and still having to do the cleaning up after).

He’ll probably scald me for sharing this, but Dave has always been keen to add ‘circus skills’ to his list of party tricks (including opening a beer bottle with his thumb, touching his nose with his tongue and consuming his body weight in food), so I started to research private circus workshops as a fun way to spend some time together and learn something new.

As I browsed various local options I went off course a little, and selfishly started to sway towards ‘acro’ and ‘ariel’ Gymnastics and Yoga, as its something I’ve always fancied trying.

I came across a local dance school ‘Danse Vivante’ that amongst a range of other exciting offerings provide Ariel Yoga classes.

Dave and I arrived at the studio a little nervous of what our instructor had in store for us! We were greeted by our lovely teacher Karen, who had a chat with us about what we wanted to concentrate on.

After changing into suitable clothing (covering legs to avoid friction burn from the silks – Dave failed to prepare, wearing shorts and boy did he suffer afterwards!!) we got straight to it.

Initially we worked on some simple Yoga poses using the silks which was really interesting for me, because by introducing silks the poses challenged your core in different ways vs. when working on a mat. I think Dave was a bit bored at first but we soon started upping the reps and I could see he was sweating a bit. That section of the classes ended with a wonderful Shavassana suspended and cocooned in the silks.

Next we moved onto more technical sequences moving through some poses and inversions with the help of the hammock (silks). One of my favourite was the ‘Star’ inversion – using the silks as props I was able to achieve some inversions I’d not managed to get into before, it was a nice sense of weightlessness, but at the same time there was a big dependency on upper body strength to create the resistance to suspend.

I often say that Dave is like an ant as what he might lack in height he makes up for in the strength department – so he was relishing the opportunity to climb right to the top of the silks with ease and take on some of the more challenging poses like ‘Spiderman’ and ‘Crucifix’. I did attempt ‘Crucifix’ and whilst I managed to get into the pose, I didn’t have the strength to get out and ended up hanging ungracefully like a fly waiting to be eaten by a spider!

It was such a fun experience and I’d definitely recommend as an alternative date option – it was nice to see that Dave still wants to show off and impress me after 12 years!

If you’d like to make an enquiry with Danse Vivante contact them via their website

Have you ever been on a date that was a bit out of the ordinary? I would love to arrange something exciting again, so I’d love to hear your suggestions!

We’re two Mums who are getting through motherhood one day at a time whilst enjoying Yoga and other ‘me time’ activities. We don’t profess to be experts in Yoga, Pilates, exercise, meditation, the human anatomy or medicine and we’re certainly not experts in parenting. We are simply sharing our experience and opinions and occasionally those of people who’s advice we value, and we’ll always reference them. If you’re unsure of starting any new exercise or practice, please consult your GP. And if you’re unsure of purchasing any products we suggest, please consult your bank balance!